


Land of Night

by Empatheia



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Gap Filler, Hair Kink, May/December Relationship, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 11:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12057645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Empatheia
Summary: A campfire interlude on the journey to destroy the fractured worlds.





	Land of Night

**Author's Note:**

> 750words entry from 2017/02/23. My great big hair-touching kink rears its head yet again. Also, is this seriously the first Leia/Gaius fic on here? How is that possible?

The campfire crackled amiably under a ferociously bright canopy of stars.

Here at the eastern edge of Arklund Quag, mere steps from the black waters of the bay, the prevailing spirit clime was closer to the witching hour than the greenish midnight of the quag's center, and the stars shone brighter nowhere else on Rieze Maxia.

They sheltered in the lea of a tall hill, the far slope of which petered out into sand and silt at the edge of the water. The chill wind off the bay was diverted by its crown, lifted and angled so that all that humidity would fall as rain closer to the center. Here, it was mostly dry, and if not warm, at least not aggressively cold, either.

Though this was not their world, all the constellations were the same. Blue phosphenes shimmered just below the level of sight, lending everything an alien air that made them all feel strangely homesick.

Gaius leaned back against the log bordering the campfire's pit, and found legs instead.

Startled, he jerked forward, but a pair of gentle hands on his shoulders encouraged him to lean back again, and he allowed them to guide him. "I don't mind," Leia's cheerful voice said, not far from his left ear. "Softer than the log, right?"

"Well, yes," Gaius admitted, "but it seems somewhat improper—"

Leia flicked his ear, and he flinched, startled.

"It's not improper if I don't mind," she said, with a tone as if explaining something simple to a child, though not quite so condescending. "Just stay put. Besides, now I can play with your hair."

Gaius twisted around to meet her eyes, which were wide and innocent. "If you intend—"

"No no no," said Leia, waving her hands in negation, "I didn't mean put it up in pigtails or anything. It just looks so... shiny. I won't do anything weird to it, I promise. Just mess around with it a bit."

As if to demonstrate, she threaded her fingers into it over his right ear, thumb brushing lightly over the uppermost curve and fingertips settling against his scalp. Despite his wariness, something loosened in his spine as if it were melting in sudden heat. He realized he was leaning his cheekbone into her palm and stiffly turned back around, flushing.

Taking that as permission, Leia touched her fingertips to the edges of his forehead from behind and drew the crown of his hair back, then gathered the remainder into her hands and combed any stray bits in with her fingernails.

Gaius shivered helplessly as they scraped lightly over his sensitive scalp, feeling little courses of lightning trickling down his spine whenever she brushed the nape of his broad neck.

"What do you condition this with?" she said, marvelling. "Guys hardly ever keep their hair in shape, let alone shape like this. Whatever your secret is, I wanna buy in bulk."

Shrugging, Gaius tilted his head towards his pack. "My mother's sister makes many things from the herbs that grow in the mountains, and whenever anyone from Outway goes to Kanbalar she sends a chest of jars and bottles with them for me. I think the one for my hair has heart herb in it, but I couldn't tell you much more than that."

"I've gotta meet this aunt of yours," Leia said fervently as she combed through his hair with her fingers, tugging only very gently. "I didn't know you still had living family, aside from Karla."

"Outway is a small settlement that has been quite isolated over the years," Gaius said awkwardly. "I am related to most of those who dwell there, albeit distantly for some."

"Then I've definitely gotta go," Leia said firmly. "If I'm going to write an article on you, I need sources. I was all ready to make do without any family contacts, but if you've got 'em, I want 'em."

Gaius sighed. "I suppose that could be arranged, if you have your heart set on it. I confess that I don't understand why, however."

"Why what?" Leia asked, mystified. She let her handfuls of hair fall, bringing her thumbs up beneath the silky black fall to press her thumbs to the base of his skull and slide slowly down the muscles to either side of his spine.

To his great embarrassment, Gaius could not entirely stifle a moan. The muscles there had been tense for decades, it seemed, nearly calcified to rock. Under her expert and merciless hands, though, they were thawing, and it hurt terribly in the most glorious way.

"There you go," she said softly, sounding pleased. "Seriously, though, what part of me wanting to write an article on you is confusing?"

"Well, I mean," Gaius blustered, but could not seem to find the words he needed to articulate this. All his words were floating away from him, a little more out of reach every time he grasped at them. "Karla is writing a book... surely that is enough already. I am not so important as all that."

Leia snorted and flicked his ear again. The other ear, this time. He was too relaxed to flinch.

"The article is basically going to be a glorified ad for the book, if I'm honest," she said. "And... people always want to know more personal things about the people who are leading them. Not every person, I mean, but a lot of people. Trust me, there's an audience. I want to give them the perspective of someone who's both fought against you and fought at your side, an accurate picture of who you are as an enemy and as an ally, and as a friend. Karla will cover the picture of you as a human being she's known since childhood, long before you climbed your way up to the throne. Between the two of us, hopefully we'll be able to tell the people of both Rieze Maxia and Elympios who the king shaping their future really is. A tiny fraction of that, anyway."

"I... see," said Gaius. "I suppose that is reasonable."

Despite his noncommittal response, his innards were in disarray, and he wasn't sure how to settle them. Leia had called him her  _ friend _ . "Enemy" didn't surprise him, as he certainly had been, and nor did "ally," as he clearly was that now. "Friend," however, was something he had never dared to presume to with most of the group, and definitely not with her.

Leia had evidently decided to give him a full scalp massage, and was starting afresh at the edge of his hairline, working her way backwards over his crown. He closed his eyes, minorly overwhelmed. At his back, he felt her briefly squeeze her knees together.

"Are you going to fall asleep on me?" she asked, gently teasing.

"Mm," Gaius replied. "Perhaps."

He heard her huff out a voiceless little laugh. She curved one hand around his forehead and pulled slowly back, encouraging him to lay back on her knees and thighs. Obediently, he did so, closing his eyes against the blaze of the stars overhead.

Her fingers stroked softly at his throat and jawline, thumbs running over his cheekbones.

"You have such a face," she said under her breath, "it's so not fair."

That didn't quite seem to make sense, not entirely, but he was nearly in a trance now, lulled by the warmth of the fire and the familiar smell of wood smoke and the hypnotic movements of her tender hands.

Motion, slow and cautious: she slid down off the log to sit on the grass beside him, drawing his head down with the rest of her until he had tipped over to lie with his head entirely in her lap. "That's better," she muttered, then yawned.

"I should retire to my bedroll," Gaius mumbled through the haze of warmth and pleasure.

"Me too," admitted Leia, "but this feels so nice, I don't want to go yet."

Gaius could not argue that, and so he lay silently under her ministrations for a while longer, gazing at the dancing fire through half-lidded eyes. The rest of the group were turning in, one by one and in pairs. Milla and Jude had put their bedrolls next to each other, but chastely stayed on their own sides, except for Jude's hand reaching across the boundary to twine with hers. Alvin's was a couple of feet away, and he lay facing them with his eyes closed but every line of his body focused on them. Elize and Elle were cuddled up with Rollo, sharing warmth, with Ludger close by in case Elle needed anything in the night. Rowen was off by himself, as always, with Gaius' bedroll laid out neatly three paces away; close enough to summon, but not together. Muzet, not bothering with the charade like Milla was, sat across the fire gazing skywards with an inscrutable look on her ancient face.

His allies. His comrades. His... friends, if he could be so presumptuous after all. Certainly he cared for them from somewhere very deep in his heart, almost as deep as his love for his people. He could not die for them, but he could come very close, if the situation demanded it.

On the morrow they would all search for the heart of this splintered-off echo of reality and unmake it. Perhaps it would draw blood. They often did.

Somehow, that seemed so far away. Years distant, rather than hours. The moment had expanded to fill all of reality for him, and the moment was so warm, so gentle.

He had seen Leia crack the skulls of monsters ten times her size. He had seen her fight her way through the evaluation gauntlet at the newspaper, despite her age, the same fierce battle light in her eyes. He had met her parents, and knew what iron and fleece had gone into her making.

She was not soft, but neither was she hard. She could be naive, but she was not foolish, and she learned quickly. She was not gentle, but oh, she  _ could _ be. If she so chose.

As she was so choosing now.

It occurred to him that this was a privilege he had not fully appreciated. She was gentle with Milla, sometimes, and with the children, but rarely with anyone else. That she was gentle with him now meant... something. Something important.

Rolling slightly so he could look up at her, he reached up and returned one favour, his great hand cradling the side of her head as if it had been made to fit. She stared down at him, brows drawing together as she tried to interpret.

"You must be tired, too," he said, softly. He could be soft too, though he had not tried in a very long time. It came back more easily than he would have expected. "If you don't retire to your bedroll now, you may end up falling asleep here, and then you would be weary and sore in the morning."

Leia made a rueful face. "Yeah, but...."

"If you like," he interrupted, proceeding very carefully, "you may bring your bedroll over nearer mine. It would be improper to share one, but—"

Her eyes were wide, genuinely startled but not displeased. "Really? That's okay with you?"

"I find myself... also somewhat reluctant to put an end to this," he admitted, wondering how ashamed he would be of himself in the morning. "The night is cold."

Her smile shone to rival the stars behind her, her whole face given over to it. "Sure. Okay. That sounds like a plan to me."

Steeling himself, Gaius forced himself to sit up, driving his half-melted muscles to do their jobs. Rising to his feet with another push of effort, he extended a hand down to her, which she took to pull herself up after him and then refused to let go of.

"Don't worry," she said with a flashing grin directed up towards his face, "if my mom finds out and gets mad, I'll fight her for you."

"Much appreciated," he said drily, though some small, shameful part of him was genuinely relieved that he wouldn't have to face that battle himself. He had not been joking about Madam Rolando intimidating him. She was still the only person in the world he had met who did.

When they reached his bedroll, she released his hand to go retrieve her own, dragging it over to lie nearly atop his. Without a word, she removed her shoes and outerwear, piled them semi-neatly at the head of her blankets, and burrowed in. Once ensconced, she flapped a hand at him impatiently, beckoning him to follow suit. Bemused, he did so.

The moment he was fully settled, he felt her wriggle and twist over until she was pressed against his side, only a few layers of damp, chilled fabric between them.

He should push her away, he thought. That would probably be the right thing to do. It was difficult, though, to see the harm in keeping her warm on a night so cold as this.

"Night, Gaius," she mumbled against his shoulder.

"Sweet dreams, Leia," he said softly, and closed his eyes.

In his dreams, they walked in starlight side by side.

**X**


End file.
